The present invention relates to an Elevating Scaffold Trailer and more particularly to an apparatus and method for transporting cut burley tobacco stalks to and from a curing cell and for transferring the cut tobacco stalks to and from holding racks within the curing cell.
Burley tobacco plants grow as relatively tall stalks with the tobacco leaves growing radially out from the stalks. In the past, when the burley tobacco plant stalks are cut down, the widest portion (bottom of the stalk) of the main stem is manually skewered onto a wooden stake which has a sharpened point affixed at one end thereto. Generally, each stake is about five or six feet long, and about five or six different plants are threaded onto each stake and pushed toward the intermediate portion of the stake away from the opposite free ends of the stake. The stakes would then be carried, to wooden curing sheds.
The stakes would then be manually hung across beams or supports within the curing shed and packed fairly tightly therein. The stakes were usually stored in levels or tiers within the wooden curing shed, generally three or four tiers of tobacco stakes would be hung within any single curing shed. This is a very labor intensive operation requiring many man hours and fairly dangerous work conditions.
Previously, the tobacco stakes were either carried to the curing sheds by workers or loaded onto trailers and driven to the curing sheds. Once at the sheds, the stakes were manually transferred to the supports within the curing shed. Mechanical means, such as the tobacco stick elevator disclosed by Arnold U.S. Pat. No. 3,580,386, may have been employed to raise the tobacco sticks to their appropriate tiers within the curing shed.
Trailers with vertically adjustable frames are disclosed in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 4,618,307 to Kress et al. discloses a carrier for lifting and transporting a scrap bucket supported in a stand having a rectangular lower frame. The carrier includes a trailer which may be raised and lowered with respect to its support wheels.
Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 3,424,489 to Hoy discloses a transport vehicle having an upper deck disposed above a lower deck. The patent discloses apparatus for lowering the rear end of the upper deck to a position from which it may be loaded in a fashion similar to and as easily as the lower deck is loaded. The front of the upper and lower decks are pivoted relative each other and the rear ends are connected through a toggle linkage.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,802,006 to Nelson et al. discloses a boat trailer including a rack arrangement that is rotatably mounted on a frame. The rack consists of a number of vertical posts having one end pivotally mounted between stringers of a frame. A pair of braces connect the post. A cable and wench are used to rotate the post and braces upward.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,542,226 to Hutton discloses a portable dolly having a vertically movable bed containing a plurality of pole conveying rollers journaled therein to assist in the loading and unloading of wire poles from the bed of the dolly. A built-in jack means may be provided for raising and lowering the bed above the frames.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,165,208 to Lewis. U.S. Pat. No. 3,262,587 to Anderson. U.S. Pat. No. 3,580,386 to Arnould et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,361,002 to Swetnam et al. disclose various holders for sticks used to mount tobacco stalks.